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Games a good place to work

1.
games: a good place to work? Lizzie Haines for IGDA London 26-Jan-05

2.
first of all the statistics… <ul><li>only 17% of the games workforce is female </li></ul><ul><li>and only 27% of women actually make games </li></ul><ul><li>2% of programmers are women. £5 of audio, 5% of designers and 9% of artists </li></ul><ul><li>companies vary from 1% women to nearly half </li></ul><ul><li>why? </li></ul>

3.
what is it like for women? <ul><li>3 out of 5 developers work over 46 hours in a normal week </li></ul><ul><li>over 50% see crunch times as a ‘normal part of business’ </li></ul><ul><li>many women complain of sexism </li></ul><ul><li>women feel very outnumbered </li></ul>

4.
what would women like? what women don’t like a male –dominated environment no females in senior roles no family-friendly practices male jargon being patronised sexism and racism unequal pay, poor pay glass ceiling long hours crunch time what women like a friendly/safe/creative/non-threatening/healthy/non-divisive atmosphere flexible working presence of other women, especially in senior positions no porn respect from male colleagues facilities (especially loos, frequently mentioned) women seen to be treated equally non-corporate environment no suits

5.
changes in the air? <ul><li>yes… </li></ul><ul><li>mobile games </li></ul><ul><li>on-line and iTV games </li></ul><ul><li>mass market and console games </li></ul><ul><li> more games women and girls want to play </li></ul><ul><li> more respect from developers </li></ul>

6.
garage-hacker culture <ul><li>elevates the nerdy but heroic founder and sees him as a role model </li></ul><ul><li>likes to work with hard core gamers, ‘people like us’ </li></ul><ul><li>resists ‘professionalisation’ and values ‘creativity’ </li></ul><ul><li>celebrates the long hours and pizzas </li></ul><ul><li>believes sincerely that it is gender-neutral </li></ul>

7.
what does this mean for women? <ul><li>less likely to get seen </li></ul><ul><li>less likely to get employed </li></ul><ul><li>less likely to get promoted </li></ul>

9.
different styles of company the new company small, young company innovative product or market high proportion of women including women at the top active recruitment policy drive to recruit women the garage-hacker company can be very small or grow quite large sticks to traditional male console games very few women, usually in admin and PR and none in senior roles no HR policy recruits from networks and CVs tied to long hours and frequent crunch times the established larger company large size, multi-national diversifying product aiming at mass market high proportion of women, including women in senior positions HR policies hire from outside the industry progressive management practices

10.
<ul><li>what do you think? </li></ul><ul><li>what is your experience? </li></ul><ul><li>contact me at [email_address] for a link to the full report </li></ul>